e
motion.

Lord GAGE spoke in the following manner:--Sir, as the grievance cannot
be denied to be real, and the motion, therefore, may reasonably be
imagined to have been made without any other intention than of
benefiting the publick by an useful law, I cannot discover any
sufficient reason for a rejection so peremptory and contemptuous.

That every man is disgusted, and almost every man daily endangered in
our streets, has not been denied; nor will any man, I suppose, question
what, if he has not yet experienced it, he may, perhaps, be fully
convinced of, in his next visit or excursion.

Those evils, which every man feels, though slight, are worthy of the
attention of the legislature; and that danger that threatens multitudes,
though distant, ought to be averted: for a small disorder, like a small
expense, when it extends to multitudes, becomes a national affair.

But though this motion may, perhaps, be liable to some objections, there
is, certainly, no such absurdity to be found in it, as may justify us in
rejecting it without examination; to reject a motion when it is first
offered, is a proof of prejudice, next to that of rejecting it unheard;
it is to determine a question, before it is discussed, or can be fully
understood.

Mr. SANDYS replied, in substance as follows:--Sir, I cannot but differ
very widely in opinion from the right honourable member that spoke last,
with regard to the propriety of opposing a motion when it is first made;
a practice, which I can by no means think inconsistent with either
decency or prudence, and which would, perhaps, be of use to the publick,
if it was more frequent.

When any motion is made, it is subjected to the consideration of this
assembly, and every member is at full liberty to examine and discuss it.
If it appears to deserve farther attention, it may be admitted, but if
the subject be either improper or unseasonable, or the measures proposed
injudicious or dangerous, it is then to be rejected; and if it is at
last to be rejected, it is apparent that no time ought to be thrown away
upon it.

The hours, and days, and weeks, that have been improfitably spent upon
bills which after all our endeavours could not be passed; the delays of
real benefits to the publick, which have been produced by long pursuits
of shadowy advantages, have inclined me to a more expeditious method of
proceeding, and determined me speedily to reject what I cannot hope to
amend.

[The question